eep! leaking oil?

[moose]

so i came out to my car today and found it dripping what looked to be oil from the engine. it was kinda see through amberish. i couldn't find any leaking hoses buti could see it running down the front under the radiator. after a bit it stopped. i checked the oil level it was fine, car didn't go up in temp any when i drove. any suggestions?

[bobafett]

check your valve cover gasket. i had to replace mine on my 3g. its a common thing to have a lot of leaky oil. also when i change my oil i spill some when i pull out the filter, so maybe its just that.

if its from the tranny then fill that bitch right away. :)

[Osiris]

First, if its coming out the radiator, its not oil. Second if its reddish or amberish its not cooling fluid nor oil but probaly tranny fluid. You dont want to wait till the temp goes up to check neither. On a car this old it may be too late by then.

Check your radiator fluid, oil, and tranny fluid now!

[infecto]

has to be your tranny if its amber in color.

[BITESIZE]

Tranny fluid in my eyes.

[moose]

tranny fluid? :( how do i go about checking/filling that? manual tranny btw

[bobafett]

there is a fill spot that you should be able to see from the top of the car... just like a dipstick or something that you can twist off with your hands.

now to drain it u will have to jack up the car, and look on the bottom of the tranny, there is a strange keyed nut that u will have to remove, it has a hole in it, so you have to stick like a 3/8" extension in there or something. i cant remember what size, but i remember, it was weird like that... :) just twist off the drain plug, and let it drain, then pour a qt or two in and let it go straight thru to help flush the shit out.. .then tighten up the drain bolt, and add the appropriate ammount of oil. i cant remember how much i used, it should be in the haines, which you really need to buy lol./ but i used castrol syntec for my tranny. :)

[89LxiAg]

To check the level of the manual transmission, you will have to get under the car, but make sure you raise it completely level. There should be two bolts, a fill/inspection bolt (higher of the two) and a drain bolt (lower on the tranny). Open the fill/inspection bolt and put your finger inside the tranny and feel for the oil level. If the level is not right under the hole, you aare low on fluid. Fill the tranny with good quality engine oil (10W-30 or 10W-40) through the same hole that you have open(yes, you will need a funnel and some rubber tubing).

If the level is low, you may consider draining the entire tranny and replacing all of the fluid, instead of mixing old and new oil. To drain, simply open the lower bolt (the drain bolt) and allow all of the oil to drain out. Then replace the drain bolt, and fill as mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

[MrBen]

I'm not much of a techy. So on a manual tranny car, the tranny uses engine oil, correct? So when I fill the oil, isn't that the tranny oil also? When I check the oil, isn't that checking the oil level of the tranny also?

[89LxiAg]

Both the engine and the transmission use engine oil, but they are totally separate contents. If you pour oil into the engine, it does not (and should not under normal circumstances) enter the transmission, and vice versa.

Engine oil is used in both, but the oil does not move between the engine and transmission.

When you check the engine oil, you are only checking the level of oil that lubricates the engine only! When you check the transmission oil, that oil stays only in the transmission.

Hope this helps.

[MrBen]

How often should the transmission be checked then? How often should it be serviced (or does it need to be?)

[bobafett]

it is less critical to check the tranny oil, since it wont "burn" or anything. but if you haev a leak it is VERY important, because if your gears arent lubricated your transmission willl eat itself, like ambers and joshes did! :P

i would check it every week or so, until you are confident that its not gonna leak on you, and there isnt too many metal shavings in there. if you see a lot of metal when draining its prolly a good idea to flush the fluid, instead of just drain and fill. :D

[NXRacer]

my coolant used to be amber.........no matter how long i flushed the damn radiator, my water was ALWAYS rusty looking.....could that be a problem..........:lol

[jlaccord89lxi]

POWER STEERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check the power steering fluid level and also the line that goes along the front of the engine. Just run your hand along the underside of that line and if it is seeping fluid that could very well be what you see on the driveway under your car.

[89LxiAg]

...changing the transmission oil every 30,000 miles OR 24 months (whichever comes first) under normal driving.

If you want to be extra careful, or consider your driving "severe", Honda recommends changing it every 15,000 miles or 12 months.

There is no inspection schedule, but if you suspect a leak I would check it every oil change until you are satisfied that there is no leak.

[MrBen]

Well I have never changed the tranny oil. Then again, I've driven the car only 10,000 miles. I guess I'll have the guy change it on Wednesday when he does an oil change.

[neoblue89lxi]

Be careful. I've heard from many knowlegable people including honda parts managers and honda certified technicians, that if your tranny fluid hasn't been changed every 30,000 miles since the beginning then don't do it now. I've been told it is a formula for disaster. It sounds odd but take the advice of people that know what they are doing. I doubt a honda technician is a dumb-ass.

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by neoblue89lxi
Be careful. I've heard from many knowlegable people including honda parts managers and honda certified technicians, that if your tranny fluid hasn't been changed every 30,000 miles since the beginning then don't do it now. I've been told it is a formula for disaster. It sounds odd but take the advice of people that know what they are doing. I doubt a honda technician is a dumb-ass.

thats only for automatic transmissions.

[KaMiKaZeE]

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Changing your fluid will not hurt your car. NOT changing it will make it fail prematurely.

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by KaMiKaZeE
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Changing your fluid will not hurt your car. NOT changing it will make it fail prematurely.

not true for automatic transmissions. If the fluid has never been flushed and you have alot of miles on the trans you should not change it.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Originally posted by 2old_honda
not true for automatic transmissions. If the fluid has never been flushed and you have alot of miles on the trans you should not change it.
That's right.... after alot of miles with the fluid not being changed, it starts to get dirty and that dirt starts to become a friction type material to the tranny, and in a strange way it actually 'helps' it (although it's slowly killing it). When you drain all that out and put clean fluid in, the damage has already been done, and there's now gaps and such where that dirt was acting as a friction material, and the tranny starts to slip. Same thing happens to your brake master cylinder if the fluid hasn't been flushed for a long time and is really dirty (which doesn't take long for brake fluid), it'll start sinking to the floor after you flush it and put clean fluid in.

If people would just keep up on maintence stuff while the car was young, we would have none of these problems now......shit! :rant:

:)